South River City Citizens Records

An Inventory of the Collection

Founded in 1972, The South River City Citizens is a neighborhood organization located in Austin, Texas that works to protect and improve its incorporated communities and their constituents. The majority of the collection is composed of administrative, meeting, agenda, and membership records; agreements and resolutions; impact studies; correspondence between community officers and city government officials; and published newsletters, flyers, and newspaper clippings that highlight the SRCC's involvement in issues and developments affecting its neighborhoods from the 1960s to the present day.

The South River City Citizens neighborhood association, also known as the SRCC, is a non-profit organization founded in 1972 by Jean Mather and Harriet Buxkemper in Austin, Texas.
The neighborhood association encompasses the numerous subdivisions included in the area just below Lady Bird Lake in south Austin near the city's urban center. This area was Austin's first planned urban community south of the Colorado River.

The SRCC was founded following Austin City Council's announcement that it would seek neighborhood participation in the Austin Tomorrow Plan, a city-wide comprehensive planning effort used to guide urban development. The SRCC saw the Austin Tomorrow Plan as a way to be heard by the city government, and began advocating for issues pertaining to its neighborhoods. The organization began meeting at the Grace United Methodist Church on East Monroe Street and meetings are still held there today.

The South River City Citizens neighborhood association works to promote a good quality of life for the residents living within its boundaries. The organization is volunteer-based and membership is open to all residents of the neighborhood. The primary responsibilities of the SRCC are to protect and improve the neighborhood community by dealing with ongoing traffic issues, controlling zoning changes, and planning and cooperating with the city on key issues such as education, development, and other city services. The SRCC also supports its local area schools: Travis Heights Elementary, Fullmore Middle School, and Travis High School, and sponsors educational programs and activities that further the organization's membership goals. In addition, neighbors work together to conserve its parks and nature areas such as Stacy Park, Little Stacy, and Blunn Creek Preserve, as well as affect minimal adverse environmental effects on nearby properties.

The SRCC is bordered to the north by the Colorado River; the south by Ben White Boulevard; the west by South Congress Avenue; and the east boundary by Parker Lane to Oltorf (west of IH 35 and south to Ben White Boulevard). Within these boundaries the SRCC is divided into eight geographical areas with their own designated number. Areas 3 and 4 are further subdivided into "3A" and "3B," and "4A" and "4B" respectively for a total of 10 areas. Each of these areas has one or two area coordinators who act as liaisons for the members residing in their neighborhoods.

The SRCC derives its mandate from its bylaws, which are updated on an as-needed basis. The leadership of the organization is composed of an elected Executive Committee consisting of a president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary, and ten area coordinators. Area coordinators are responsible for reporting on matters of concern within their areas; acting as liaisons between members residing within the coordinator's zone; distributing the organization's newsletters and other notices (they may also designate block captains for this purpose), and aiding interested persons in becoming members. Members of the SRCC meet monthly while the Executive Committee meets according to need. The SRCC is also composed of a variety of standing and ad hoc committees including the Zoning and Planning Committee; Transportation and Public Safety Committee; Parks, Environment, and Schools Committee; and Special Events Committee.

Newsletters, meeting minutes, clippings, and correspondence document the bulk of the activities and interests of the South River City Citizens neighborhood association. Arranged into four series representing the administrative documents of the South River City Citizens neighborhood association, issues and planning projects in which the South River City Citizens neighborhood association was involved, and zoning documents reflecting the organization of the association, these records reflect the undertakings of the association and the breadth of their interests.

The first series, Administration, reflects the SRCC's logistical functions of writing and executing bylaws, organizing members, and deciding block captains. The files are arranged alphabetically according to subject. The materials, dating from 1973 to 2011, include the constitution and bylaws, correspondence, maps, membership and block captains' lists, and handwritten and typed meeting minutes and notes. The correspondence files consist of letters written between SRCC members and local contractors, the Austin City Council, and other branches of Austin's city government. The nature of these letters consists of traffic complaints and suggestions, development concerns, noise ordinances, and environmental improvements. Meeting files contain official minutes and agendas. Organizational records contain the constitution and bylaws, amendments, and written histories of the SRCC.

The Neighborhood Issues series (1969-2011) documents the SRCC's mandate of neighborhood improvement and advocacy. The materials include neighborhood and zoning maps, architectural renderings, housing policies, meeting agendas, restrictive covenants, petitions, memoranda, correspondence and printed emails, pictures, newsletters and pamphlets, and newspaper clippings. Every file within the series concentrates on a specific issue, and documents the actions the organization carried out to resolve them. Key issues reflected in the series include: transportation, traffic and noise, oak wilt disease and other environmental concerns, historic preservation, and the impact of business growth on the area.

The Planning series (1972-2005) contains documents pertaining to the SRCC's courses of action in addressing the issues presented in the Neighborhood Issues series. The files are arranged alphabetically according to subject. The materials include proposed ordinance changes; rezoning and expansion proposals; advisory planning board meeting notes and memoranda; environmental, land development, and business impact studies; and architectural drawings and maps; and correspondence. Newspaper clippings relating to neighborhood concerns are contained in the Austin American-Statesman file, as well as intermittently within other folders. The "Census Computer Analysis" file contains demographic information on the residents of the South River City neighborhood area. The "Central Business District (CBD)" file holds documents related to the rezoning of the business district of Congress Street, a large portion of which runs through the South River City Citizens neighborhood. The "Companile del Mar, Gotham/Mirabeau" folder contains correspondence, zoning documents, and newspaper clippings related to the neighborhood's concerns about the construction of condominiums in the neighborhood. The "Implementation" folder concerns the neighborhood's efforts to restructure and approve a new neighborhood master plan. The "Fairview NCCD" (neighborhood conservation plan) pertains to the rezoning of the Fairview neighborhood area within the South River City Citizens neighborhood association. The remainder of the files in the series - "NBHD Planning East," "Neighborhood Planning West," "Planning," and "SRCC Planning" - all pertain to neighborhood concerns such as zoning, liquor licenses, and the preservation of single family homes, the only significant difference being the years that these files cover. Records of particular importance in this series are the master plans, which outline the issues of greatest importance to the SRCC and member areas, and summarize their plans of action in addressing them, encapsulating the whole of the series.

The Zoning Areas series (1972-2007) is the smallest of the four series and contains documents pertaining to the ten separate areas of the SRCC. The files are arranged numerically by area number, adhering to the original order found in the collection. The materials include area maps, meeting notes, environmental impact and historical building studies, zoning meeting information and petitions, newspaper clippings, correspondence between Austin City Council and area coordinators, mailing lists, memoranda, photographs, and architectural renderings.